iTunes launched in 56 countries today

More than just Russia

Monday's rumors of an Apple iTunes event about to take place in Moscow seriously underestimated the scale of Apple's impending announcement.

The Cupertino company launched iTunes in not one, not two, and not three, but 56 additional countries Tuesday, nearly doubling the number of nations that have the music store.

The day prior, it seemed as if iTunes might launch in Russia, and possibly in Turkey and Lebanon on top of that.

But those guesses missed the mark by over 50, as the iTunes music store is now available in a total of 119 countries across the globe.

iTunes music, movies and Match

Apple stressed in its announcement that many countries' iTunes music store selections are filled with local music from "thousands of independent labels" as well as the usual international stuff.

"The iTunes Store features local artists including Elka in Russia, Sezen Aksu in Turkey, AR Rahman in India, and Zahara in South Africa, international artists including The Beatles, Taylor Swift and Coldplay, and world-renowned classical musicians including Lang Lang, Yo Yo Ma and Yuja Wang," Apple's announcement read.

iTunes Match, Apple's music library cloud storage service, is also available now in all countries that have access to iTunes.

In addition, Apple announced that movies are now available through iTunes in Russia, Turkey, India and Indonesia, and that more countries will gain access to movie downloads in the future.

Is iTunes available in my country?

The iTunes app store is already available in 155 countries, but those living in a place where iTunes music was previously unavailable may be wondering whether that changed today.

Apple focused on Russia, Turkey, India and South Africa in its official announcement, but when queried a PR representative for the iPhone maker sent TechRadar a list of all 56 countries in which iTunes is newly available.

While we won't list all of the names, notable additions include several African nations, including Botswana, Egypt and Kenya, while Saudia Arabia and United Arab Emirates got store access too.

Bahrain, Bermuda, Fiji, Israel, Indonesia, Lebanon, Mongolia and Nepal were also part of the iTunes music list.

Apple likely hoping to boost iPhone and iPod sales around the world by giving new populations access to iTunes' reported 20 million songs.